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Tuesday, October 28, 2014

For the past two weeks now I have been extremely busy with work. A colleague of mine fell sick and I have ended up working over 20 hours worth of overtime per week. This has left me knackered and way too tired to do much. In fact, on my free days I spend most of the time reading or watching a DVD. Unfortunately, inertia has claimed me for the time being.

Nonetheless, I have managed to scrounge up some energy and I have started my next project, which is the 54mm Conan the Barbarian model from Andrea Miniatures. This is the first of four single miniatures I have to paint up to fulfill my New Year's resolution. The others being a 70mm Wolverine figure from Eaglemoss Publications, and a Viking and Celtic warrior from Pegasus Models.

So let's begin. As I stated a few posts back, I managed to do the face of the model a couple of years back. I always start with the face. If it does not turn out right, then I start again. In this case it came out OK. My intention here is to get back into the rhythm and complete the model. I am not interested in painting a masterpiece, just something that looks good in my showcase. Below is the miniature in the state I left it in.

My first task was to paint in all the base colours, in order to get a feel for the model and see if I like where I am headed. The box art shows the model in drab and earth colours, and I think that is the right direction.

After the base colours and some washes were added, I like to take some time to see if the look of the figure 'works'. I think it does, but I have decided that the armour needs to be brightened up. With its present colour, it makes it too dark - even though it is more compliant with the box art.

The solution in my opinion is to paint up the armour in metallics. This will add a central brightness to the model and hopefully add some realism while I am at it. Alas, my energy was completely drained with this mighty effort and I decided to put it aside.

The next day I did not feel like continuing with the model, so I decided to tackle the base. The good thing with painting the base is that one does not have to be over-careful or precise. This allows for some easy going, and that is what I needed in my current wasted condition!

The picture below shows the components of the base. It comprises a scene from the first Conan movie, after the heroes escape from the Serpent Temple, towards the end.

Finding a base for this is naturally the next step. I did not want to spend money, so I opted for a base I bought on the cheap from my local Sunday market. The base is made from wood and came unpainted. After applying varnish and polishing the base up, I glued the main part of the set to the base and drilled some holes into it, in order to peg the wooden stakes.

Now I needed to fill in the rest of the base and glue the stakes into place. This was actually the fun part! Looking for bits of stone and fitting them in with epoxy putty to achieve an interesting base actually kindles reserves of energy I did not think I had.

When the putty dried, I started the painting process. The first step was to give the whole base a nice base coat. I opted for a dark rust red, followed by a black paint wash.

Then I started with several layers of drybrushing until I got an earth tone I thought was interesting. This was followed by a light brown wash to tie everything together.

At this point I am still not ready with the base's painting, but my energy reserves have finally run dry. So I decided to conclude this session by painting up the bronze standard and shield and give it a first wash.

So, that is all for now. Hopefully, my colleague will recover by the end of the week and I can get back to my normal schedule and dedicate some quality time to this model and get it done. If not, then I will have to figure out what to post. Until then, farewell and good health from your fellow blogger and hobbyist.

Sunday, October 26, 2014

I am writing this post with the sole intention of helping the the guys at Sepulchre of Heroes with their great petition to help improve our hobby. I stumbled across this petition after watching the videos online posted buy the polish gentleman who does those great Buy Painted videos on Youtube.

In these videos the gentleman explains how GW wants to move the sale of its miniatures from a gaming product to a niche collectors market in order to raise prices indiscriminately. In a nutshell, they have lost their market focus.

It is not every day that someone stands up and takes action like the guys at Sepulchre of Heroes. Usually we just complain on the blogosphere, but this is a chance to get our voices heard.

I am not really a Warhammer 40K or Warhammer Fantasy player anymore. The stiffling unbalance of the game and GW's tactics of trying to make you play bigger games has, in the end, pushed me away. Hand in hand with this, the rising prices of their product has sealed the end of my 40K gaming days. I have long since moved on to better and more affordable game systems!

Nonetheless I still love to model dioramas and paint miniatures set in the 40K universe. I also enjoy the light reading of Black Library books. So why did I sign the petition?

Well for one reason, if GW remains a game company first and foremost - and puts in the effort to design enjoyable and balanced games, their miniatures will not become solely a niche collector market. For me that seals the deal! But I fear that in 10 years time GW will fail if it does not realize it is making a terrible mistake. That is something I do not want!

Wednesday, October 15, 2014

I have finally finished the modelling of the dreadnought as well as its alternate arms. This means that my Space Wolf force as it currently stands is now fully modeled! That also means that half of this resolution is accomplished. Now, I need to paint up the force and I can claim victory!

Back to the subject at hand. As you can see all the detailing is ready, from the fur trophy on the 'shoulder', to the armour lining on the legs. I decided not to give the dreadnought a Night Runner icon, instead I went for the Wolf of the Red Moon. Since the icon of every Great Company changes with a new Wolf Lord, it would only seem reasonable to give the dreadnought a different symbol to show that his company bore a different symbol when he was alive or still fully flesh and blood. It also adds a bit of needed diversity to the force.

Since this is not a venerable dreadnought, I did not want to over do it with the detailing, so when it came to the weapons I kept things simple, opting only for one change or addition - like a wolf-tooth necklace, fur or Forge World brass symbol.

The only exception was with the dreadnought powerfist which I decided to buff a bit by increasing the length of the 'fingers' and adding a little more detail.

Below is a picture of all the little changes I did to the other weapon systems just to show they belong to a Space Wolf Dreadnought.

Well that is it for now. I will return next post with some continuing work to my 54mm Conan model that I wrote about several posts back. Now that my Space Wolf modelling push has come to a end, I will take some time to catch up on my painting. I still have four figures to paint in order to fulfill my New Year's resolutions.

Tuesday, October 7, 2014

A new month and new Epic Sales as well. After the phenomenal success I have with the first 25 listings that sold out completely within a week, I am back with some more stuff. Out of the first 15 listings only three remain! But I have added more including a rare Capitol Imperialis!

I also have an Imperial Hellbore, as well as Imperial Moles & Termites besides other infantry and vehicles. When you are on the Capitol Imperialis page, just click to see the other items I have for sale.

I am also selling off some Britania land and air forces from my Dystopian Wars collection at very good - almost giveaway prices - for anyone interested.

The Britania lot above is actual two box sets for less than the price of one! That is just how good the sale is.

Friday, October 3, 2014

As foretold last post, I am back with the Space Marine Dreadnought for my Space Wolf army. After modelling this dreadnought, my small force will be ready to paint. And I will not model anything else in the army, before I finish painting what is left.

I had begun the dreadnought at a whim, in the heat of the moment - so to speak. I hadn't planned on building it up, until one morning I got out of bed and decided I felt like building up a dread! I have finally phased out such behavior this passed year.

Back to the the project at hand. The picture below shows where I had left off with the construction of the body. Basically all I did was the inner part of the sarcophagus, after which my attention span was exhausted for the project. Until now that is!

The next step was to finish detailing the outer sarcophagus and start working on the body. The weapons would come later.

At first I wanted to super detail the model, but then I thought better of it. Firstly, this is a standard dreadnought and not a venerable one. Secondly, I decided that too much bling would reduce the utilitarian look of the model. Thirdly, this is a gaming piece and not a showcase piece - although it does catch the viewer's eye when looking at the army as a whole.

So, I just added some extra work to the outer sarcophagus and added more Forgeworld etched parts. I have also decided to add a wolf fur on the top left side. The picture above just shows where the head of the wolf will be.

I also decided to add some rivets to the outer sarcophagus, in order to give it that industrial look. While I was at it, I did some work on the leg armour as well - lining and rivets.

Well that is all for this week on the dreadnought. Next week I will continue with the fur on top and start working on the weapons. Hopefully, by next week the modelling will be finished as well.

Until then, farewell and good health from your friendly neighborhood modeller,